Public Library, 46 Old Park Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT15 6FR

Carnegie Library, Oldpark Road, Belfast

This is a detached, gable-fronted former public library built in a Tudorbethan style in brick and sandstone, constructed around 1906 to designs by the Belfast architectural practice of Watt and Tulloch. It was the first of three Carnegie-funded branch libraries built for Belfast Corporation using a grant of £15,000 from the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and the first to open, with the news and reading rooms welcoming the public in November 1906 and the lending library following in August 1907. It is one of three libraries by Watt and Tulloch designed in a distinctly Tudor idiom, and represents a significant example of civic architecture by a notable practice responsible for much public building in the Province. The carved stonework throughout is by J. E. Winter, the leading architectural sculptor in Belfast at the time.

The building is irregular on plan, facing east, with an advanced principal gabled block and a stepped-back gabled entrance bay. Single-storey wings extend to both side elevations, and there are a pair of rear returns. The roofs are pitched and covered in terracotta tiles with plain terracotta ridge tiles, set behind gables and dormers with splayed sandstone copings and sandstone finials to the front gables. Cast-iron box hoppers and square-profile downpipes break through parapets to all lead-lined valleys. The walls are in redbrick laid in Flemish bond with a projecting redbrick plinth course trimmed in splayed sandstone. Window openings are square-headed with flush sandstone lintels and sandstone window frames with flush splayed sills.

The front elevation is dominated by a principal single-bay two-storey gable, abutted by a large single-storey three-sided canted bay window, with a smaller recessed gabled two-storey entrance bay to the right. A continuous flush sandstone lintel course spans the entire elevation at first-floor level, incorporating a cavetto string course filled with floral carvings, with gargoyles projecting from the outer corners. The first-floor window has a five-light transomed and mullioned stone frame, surmounted by a sandstone panel with a bowtel surround and cornice framing raised lettering reading 'Belfast Public Library'. The sandstone parapet wall to the canted bay window carries raised lettering reading 'Carnegie Branch / Oldpark Road', together with the same string course and floral carving as described above.

The entrance bay has a single four-light window to the first floor and a Tudor-headed door opening with an elaborate carved sandstone surround. The surround is deeply set ashlar with compound arch mouldings and compound colonettes on chamfered plinths. The doorway is tripartite, with blind trefoil-headed side panels, steel-covered doors, and a multi-pane overlight. The door opens onto a bowed stone platform with two steps. Above the door is a decoratively carved sandstone overpanel with a raised central panel bearing the Belfast coat of arms and the motto 'Pro Tanto Quid Retribujamus'. A cavetto hood moulding filled with floral carvings frames the entire composition, terminating in label stops at impost level. Slender sidelights flank the doorcase, each formed in a flush splayed sandstone surround with hood moulding. The gates and handrail are replacement steel.

The south side elevation is abutted by a single-storey wing seven windows wide, with a gabled central two-storey single-bay projection featuring a pyramidal roof and a slate-hung octagonal plinth. Three wall-head dormers form the set-back first floor, with triple-light transomed and mullioned stone windows throughout. Original steel windows survive to the first floor only. The twin-gabled rear elevation is abutted by a single-storey wing to the south and a two-storey wing to the north, detailed consistently with the rest of the building. The north side elevation is abutted by a two-storey gabled stairhall projection and a single-storey toilet block at the re-entrant angle. UPVC windows have been installed to the ground floor of the north elevation, while original steel casement windows remain at first-floor level. These alterations detract from the building.

The interior accommodation was originally arranged with a lending library, news room, staff workroom, newspaper filing room, attendant's room, and WC on the ground floor, and a juveniles' room, magazine room, and ladies' room on the first floor. Much historic fabric survives internally.

The building stands on the west side of Oldpark Road on an elevated site. Its immediate context has been largely demolished, leaving it standing alone. Overgrown yards to the rear and north are enclosed by tall redbrick walls, which are included within the extent of the listing along with the library itself.

Background and historical context

Andrew Carnegie emigrated from Scotland to America at the age of thirteen after his family's income from hand-loom weaving collapsed with the introduction of mechanisation. As a boy in Pittsburgh he benefited from a library opened by a local philanthropist and became convinced that there was no better use of money than the founding of public libraries for young people. He later became extremely wealthy, initially through manufacturing railways and locomotives and subsequently through steel production. In 1881 he made his first gift of a public library to his home town of Dunfermline, and in 1901, having sold his company, he donated over five million dollars to New York City for the construction of 65 branch libraries. In total he financed around 2,500 libraries in ten countries, the large majority in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Ireland. Between 1897 and 1913 Carnegie committed over £170,000 to the building of around 80 libraries in Ireland, of which 62 survive. Eight of these surviving libraries are in Northern Ireland. In Ireland, Carnegie insisted that his provision was solely for libraries, though he did also fund church organs.

Belfast Corporation had built a Central Library in 1888 under the provisions of the Libraries Act and by the turn of the 20th century was considering branch libraries. A rise in the library rate was enacted to fund four branches in north, south, east, and west Belfast. The first purpose-built branch opened at Ballymacarrett in 1903, chosen for its high population density. Before that opening, the library committee had applied to Carnegie for a grant to build the remaining three branches. Belfast's chief librarian, G. H. Elliott, visited Carnegie and his adviser Dr Hew Morrison several times before Carnegie granted £15,000 in 1902, conditional on the raising of the library rate to cover maintenance costs and on the city providing three sites. Funding to purchase the land was obtained from the Corporation Gas Committee in 1903, but it was not until 1905 that three suitable sites had been secured, suitable land being much in demand.

The designs for all three libraries were obtained through a competition restricted to Belfast architects. The winners, Watt and Tulloch, were selected by Sir Thomas Drew on the basis of the skilful adaptation of their designs to the irregularly shaped sites. The practice was formally appointed on 1 February 1905, and work on Oldpark Road began as soon as the contractors, Robert Corry Ltd, were appointed. The contract cost was £3,623 10s 0d. The building first appears in valuation records in 1909, though no valuation is recorded at that date. By the late 1990s the library service was being provided from the news room, with the remainder of the building used for recreational and community purposes. The library closed on 22 June 2010 and the building has since been vacant.